The news comes via a spokesperson at the State Department, where Berry also works as Deputy Assistant Secretary. According to Foreign Policy, Berry would continue “in his role under the current administration.”

That special envoy role was created by the Obama administration in April 2015, and it tasked Berry with pushing back against discrimination against LGBT members abroad.

I put a primary focus on using our convening authority to have a conversation because I think there are certain types of compliance and behavior that you can force, but at the end of the day, what we really want to keep our focus on is long-term change.

And you can't achieve that through force. You've got to achieve that through education, through conversation, through exposure to the ideas.

Randy Berry's work has focused primarily on stopping the persecution (and in some cases, murder) of LGBT people worldwide.

First, there have been multiple long-serving members at the State Department who have been fired since Trump took office. Secondly (and most importantly), Trump was expected to cater to his evangelical voters on LGBT-related matters.

REUTERS

So far, however, the Trump administration has done the unexpected in two key areas.

First, the administration refrained from an executive order that would cancel Obama's protections of LGBT workers. It did so with some help from Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.

And now, the administration has kept a key figure who fights against discrimination of LGBT members worldwide.